Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, July 25: The residents of Zewan are up in arms against the rampant pollution-noise and air-caused due to the stone crushers operating near the habitation. They are demanding their closure as these units pose danger to their lives.
“The stone crushers are affecting our normal life. Our children can’t study, we can’t worship. Even inhaling air has become dangerous. These units disrupt our peace,” said Zaheer Ahmad, a resident.
The residents alleged that these stone crushers which are six in number are running violating the PCB rules. “They even threaten the existence of flora and fauna,” he said.
PCB Law Officer Mohammad Maqbool told Excelsior that if the stone crushers run from population area “they have to go.”
“As per PCB rules, the existing stone crusher units have to run from a distance of half a kilometer and the new units from one kilometer away”, he said.
“If the stone crushers affect the health of the population then they have to shift, not the population. Whether residential colonies come up before or after the unit has been established,” Maqbool said.
Regional Director Pollution Control Board Mohammad Shafi said the entire area has become an industrial area and they cannot ask the stone crushers to shift their units from the residential area.
He said the units have to mandatorily run in the day and stop after evening.
Shafi said they can ask the crusher operators to increase the efficiency of controlling pollution emanating from their operation. He claimed that PCB teams regularly monitor these units.
The worried residents said the polluting units run in violation of safety norms, and “we demand the authorities to ask them to shift their units out of the residential areas”.
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